Utopia: Neither Manifesto or Satire
There are usually two schools of thought in criticizing Utopia. The first is that Thomas More himself is in favor of the ideal state that the book outlines. The second is that he is against it. For the most part, people either believe the first is true, or the second. This is understandable as it is always more interesting to go with an extreme opinion than to be in the middle. However, this work should not be taken as the author’s socialist manifesto. As well it is not an anti-socialist satire. Utopia is an intellectual piece that is intended to show the paradoxical nature of both sides of the socialism debate. It juxtaposes an absurd view of a “perfect” society with a harsh view of British society. It was intended for an academic audience, full of irony, and unparalleled to the author’s own actions in the real world. Any author who wanted to reach a specific audience would use the language of that audience. In the case of writing that deals with such revolutionary ideas as socialism, the author would want the work to be read by the general public, as these are that people from whom the ideas could ever really take shape. Indeed, Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and Locke’s Second Treatise on Civil Government are both w
What these scholars would have seen would have immediately told them what kind of work it was. To start with, in the Greek language the name Hytholday means "talker of nonsense” (MORE 3). This would be like in a story to have a court case with witness on the stand whose name was “story teller”. If this took place then to the reader, the words of the witness would not be taken very literally. There is more. The central town on the island is called Amaurot, which comes from the Greek word amauros meaning dim and uncertain (23). The body of water that flows through this city is called the Anider, or from Greek “without water” (24). As well, They call their prince Ademus, or “without a people”. But to top it off the name of the island itself, Utopia, comes from the word outopia in Greek, meaning “no place”. An author attempting to convice a group of people of something would not use such ironic titles for people and places in their work. There is other irony in Utopia as well. “Citizens are encouraged to value pleasure, but they are constantly monitored…governors condemn wars, but there is a mercenary army and proto-imperialist foreign policy.”4 These sorts of contradictions would easily stand out to a scholarly reader. Most of Book One of Utopia was actually written after Book Two. If the latter was read by itself
Some topics in this essay:
Book Utopia,
Utopia Thomas,
Utopia Latin,
Anider Greek,
Utopia More’s,
Civil Government,
Catholic Church,
Act Supremacy,
More’s Utopia,
,
anti-socialist satire,
british society,
manifesto anti-socialist,
socialist manifesto anti-socialist,
manifesto anti-socialist satire,
socialist manifesto,
book utopia,
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Approximate Word count = 906
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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